Human Rights Advocate Rufat Safarov Faces New Charges as Trial Begins

Rufat Safarov

Azerbaijani human rights defender Rufat Safarov, executive director of the legal advocacy group Defense Line, is facing new criminal charges in a case critics say is politically motivated. His trial has been referred to the Baku Court for Serious Crimes.

Safarov was arrested on December 3, 2024. Authorities have charged him under multiple articles of the Criminal Code, including intentional infliction of less serious bodily harm, fraud resulting in significant financial damage, and hooliganism. The allegations stem from a claim that Safarov took 60,000 manats from a man named Natig Imamguliyev under the pretense of selling land in the seaside town of Novkhani, and later assaulted him during a dispute in December 2014.

Safarov has categorically denied all charges. He maintains that on the day of his arrest, as he was returning home around 5:00 PM and exiting his car in the garage, he was suddenly attacked by an unidentified individual. Police officers, he said, immediately entered the garage, handcuffed him, and took him into custody. He insists that he never received any money from Imamguliyev and had not seen or interacted with him prior to that evening.

This is not the first time Safarov has faced criminal prosecution. A former investigator with the Zardab District Prosecutor’s Office, he resigned in late 2015 after publicly accusing the Azerbaijani government of human rights abuses and systemic illegality. Soon after his resignation, he was arrested on bribery charges and sentenced to nine years in prison by the Lankaran Court for Serious Crimes in 2016. He consistently rejected those charges as fabricated. In 2019, he was released early under a presidential pardon.

Following his release, Safarov founded Defense Line, a legal advocacy organization dedicated to the protection of civil liberties and human rights in Azerbaijan.

Despite his current imprisonment, Safarov received international recognition for his work. On December 10, 2024—International Human Rights Day—then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken named him “Human Rights Defender of the Year.” In his remarks, Blinken noted that Safarov could not accept the award in person because he had been imprisoned for his human rights activities.

Safarov’s new trial marks the latest in a series of legal challenges faced by independent activists in Azerbaijan. Human rights observers are closely watching the proceedings amid growing concern over what they describe as a crackdown on civil society.